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SO THERE I WAS, sitting pretty in one black leatherette chair at
Bench Hair Salon, when suddenly an effeminate hair stylist leaped to
his feet and started touching my dyed-beaten hair. This happened
when I had a free time waiting for my room mate Bonnie who was doing
her grocery shopping chores shortly before SM Hypermart began to
play Magandang gabi sa inyong lahat! (Good evening to all!) to
signal closing time in about 15 minutes.
I was sitting there while ignoring all those
glossy women magazines, trying to figure out how Bench Salon became
a favorite of my two sons when the stylist called the shampoo girl
over, pointed at my hair, and said: “See? This is exactly what I
was talking about.”
Then they both laughed secretly judging from
their eyes, and the shampoo girl, before I knew what was happening,
wet my hair, applied 200 grams of Industrial Concrete Double
Strength shampoo of what appears to be another Bench brand, wet my
hair again, and dried it with a hand towel which I hope was
conscientiously cleaned hygienically for at least 1,000 times.
But may be you’ll wonder, at my golden age,
why do I have to let non-traditionalist hair stylists touch my hair.
I am not exactly proud of this. But look, Bonnie likes Edu
Manzano’s hair cut in One Versus the Mob and Game KNB? And I’m
beginning to like the idea too. We thought that may be it’s about
time to have an open mind about my hair style.
And so I did. Hair trimming was over for about
ten minutes or less. Nothing more than what you expect from a good
old favorite barber who could give you a brisk scalp massage, trim
your nose hair, press your clothes, remove your blackhead, shine
your shoes, etc. at no extra cost, but only for that promise
you’ll keep your Kenkoy-like hair style—shiny and greasy.
Times have changed. For all I know in academic
terms, may be hair stylists these days are measured by their time
efficiency so that they can service more customers and do more in a
very short period of time. This brings us to what the Japanese
managers refer to as SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die).
Or is it? Well, not exactly. As Shigeo Shingo
(1909 to 1990) said, SMED or quick changeover refers to a management
philosophy that aims to reduce set-up, preparation or adjustment
time to less than ten minutes… hence the phrase Single Minute (or
single digit).
Prof. Jeffrey Liker in his book The Toyota Way
(McGraw-Hill, 2004) describes Shingo as “a meticulous industrial
engineer who paid attention to every microscopic reach and grasp of
the worker.
“In the Toyota style, he thoroughly analyzed
the setup process for large stamping presses and discovered that
most of the work performed fell into one of two categories: it was
muda (waste) or it was something that could be done while the press
was still making parts.
“He called the second category “external
setup,” as opposed to “internal setup,” which was work that
had to be done while the press was shut down.”
Dr. Liker describes doing SMED to what a racing
pit crew would do when it quickly services a car and gets it back on
track, often in less than a minute. He compares changeover as one
business sport in Japan equivalent to an American rodeo citing a
case of one Mazda supplier of stamped door panels whose team had won
a prize in a national competition for changing over
several-hundred-ton presses in 52 seconds!
Another example: While not literally a
changeover, you can imagine McDonald’s very own global service
rule—customers must be served in 60 seconds or less or you earn
that free sundae, which I hope is not deducted from the salary of
its poor service crew. Well, that was more than five years ago. And
I wish they could do the sales promo once again.
The next morning after my Bench salon
experience, I found myself sitting on our home sofa reading what
else, but the morning papers, when I was greeted by Rachel, my
Imeldific daughter who owns at least 167 colorful pairs of Havaianas,
with:
“What happened to your hair?”
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Rey Elbo is a consultant on human resources
and total quality management as a fused specialty. Reader’s
feedback may be sent to kairoshq@info.com.ph.
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